The Square
by Mintika
Summary: Complete. Based on the movie The Cube. A bunch of anime characters are stuck in a cube together and have to find a way out. pg13 for a little violence and possible swearing. Final chapter added as well as alternate endings. I know you're excited!
1. Chapter1

Disclaimer: We don't own the anime's which the characters are from or the movie "The Cube."  
  
This is based on The Cube, so if you've seen it, you know the ending I guess. If you have not seen it and plan to, this spoils the ending for you, in case you care. For those of you who have seen it, I followed the story pretty close, but I didn't use a script from it or anything and as for the math shit, I didn't bother with it, I just worked around it so I wouldn't have get my lazy ass to explain it. Heh.  
  
We start this story...knock knock...  
  
OK, we start this story again. In a dark room lit only by a soft eerie glow as if from a red fire escape sign, stands Tenchi, looking dumbfounded. As he is about to move forward, a tightly woven, metal grid the length of the room slowly moves out of the wall in front of him. He watches it glide toward him. Slowly it comes closer. Extricating itself from the wall...Suddenly... Veshoom! Faster than Goku can instant transmission to the fridge, Tenchi is sliced into tiny grid sized pieces.  
  
* * *  
  
Hotaru awakes in a vast brightly lit room  
  
Knock knock. It's a really good movie! Blah blah blah. Yeah, ok, maybe we'll come out in a little bit.  
  
So ANYWAY, Hotaru awakes in a vast brightly lit room. Several hatches were scattered on the walls. She rubs her eyes, and tries to discern her current location. She realizes that she doesn't have her glasses. She searches the space around her and...Crunch. The lens cracks and a small piece falls out. She puts them on and at that point she realizes that she's in more dire circumstances than she thought. Not only are her glasses broken, but she's wearing truly hideous clothing: a gray prison uniform and unsightly brown boots. Other similarly garbed people gaze around the room in the same confused manner. A tall man with blonde hair and kind eyes stood next to an only slightly shorter woman with black hair pulled into three ponytails and a beauty mark near her mouth. On the other side of Hotaru stood a short man with long mousy brown hair and thick bangs.  
  
"Where are we?" Hotaru asked at the same time the short woman said, "Who are you? What's going on?"  
  
"Is this some kind of joke?" The tall black-haired woman demanded, in a tone suggesting that her sense of humor was not much in use.  
  
"Doesn't anyone know what's going on?" The tall man asked.  
  
"All I know is that I was very tired last night and after studying for the MCAT in my dorm I passed out. I woke up here," Hotaru told him.  
  
"What about you two?" He nodded to the other women.  
  
"I was just making cookies. And then I don't know what happened," mused the mousy-haired one.  
  
"Everything was normal when I went to bed," said the black-hired one. "What about you?"  
  
"I was coming home late last night from a Fedie bust (I'm a Zion official). I was whacked over the head and here I am."  
  
In another room, a short, muscular man with pointy hair lay on the floor breathing hard. Without warning large, circular blades slice at him through the air. He rolled Indiana Jones style out of the way. He landed near a hatch, which he quickly opened and crawled through into the room where the other four stood.  
  
"What's going on here?!" he panted. "It looks like someone's pitiful attempt to try to kill me."  
  
"None of us know what's going on," the tall blonde said. "I think we need to figure out what's going on. We should all tell our stories and figure out where we stand. So what about you, little man? How'd you end up here?"  
  
And that's the end of that. We'll put out more as soon as my stupid sister finishes writing it, which could take awhile considering her homework load it college. Reviews are cool. Does anybody know what characters everybody is??!! (cheesey grin) Heheh. 


	2. Chapter2

The other man sneered. "The Prince of Saiyans does not explain himself to third class scum."  
  
"Ha! Third class! I'm Ginias! One of the highest ranking officers in the Zion empire!"  
  
At this point the black-haired woman spoke up. "You're a prince. And you're a Zion official. I'm Twilight Susuka. A bounty hunter. A good one. (and occasional hired assassin) What about you two?" She looked to Hotaru and the other woman.  
  
"I'm Relena Peacecraft of the Sanq kingdom and former queen of the earth (sphere alliance)," chirped the mousy haired one. The Prince of Saiyans rolled his eyes. "These humans have such amusing delusions of grandeur," he muttered.  
  
"I'm Hotaru Tomoe. I'm a student at the Beijing University. I study math."  
  
Susuka raised an eyebrow. "That can't be all. What are you really?"  
  
"Well…I am a Sailor Scout and the Princess of Saturn…"  
  
"I see…So what's the common ground? Why are we here? Why us?…What are we going to do about it?" (You are all powerful and influential political leaders and I'm a hired assassin…what could POSSIBLY be the connection?)  
  
"We should see if there are any more of us," answered Ginias. The others nodded.  
  
"We need to be careful," the short prince warned. These rooms are booby-trapped. A lesser being than myself could easily be killed."  
  
The group moved cautiously toward a hatch and carefully pulled it open. They peered inside, and saw a lean man standing in the middle of another room. He crawled out of the hatch into the larger room. "Heero Yuy. It's a pleasure," he said and offered his hand to the group. Relena quickly grabbed it. "Relena Peacecraft of the Sanq kingdom." Heero glared at her and stated, "Omae o korosu." Then he looked to the rest of the group for their names.  
  
"I'm Vegeta. Prince of all Saiyans."  
  
"I'm Ginias and this is Susuka and Hotaru."  
  
"Do any of you know what's going on here?" the new comer asked. "I thought not," he added when the others made no reply. "We're in some sort of prison, I think. A bunch of the rooms have been rigged. I don't know if this is some sort of sadistic game or what, but we need to find a way out."  
  
"But how do we know which ones are rigged?"  
  
Vegeta turned to look at the whining Relena with a smirk. "We throw you into them first and see if anything happens."  
  
"No," Heero countered. "But close. Take off your shoes." Everyone one removed their shoes, while looking at Heero curiously. Ginias eyed him suspiciously. Heero took is own boots and began to tie the laces together.  
  
A look of comprehension dawned on Susuka's face, and she followed suit. Heero then opened a hatch and threw in a boot. Flames shot out of the walls at it. He pulled back a charred boot. "That's how we tell if the room is rigged."  
  
"Well, that's nice and all," Susuka observed, "but we don't have any water or anything. We're going to dehydrate."  
  
Heero turned toward her with a smile and pulled a button out of his mouth. " So you keep salivating and don't get dehydrated." A collective noise of comprehension sounded from the group. Everyone proceeded to pull a button off of their prison uniforms and stuck them in their mouths.  
  
Ginias turned to Heero. "How do you know all this? You seem to have experience with this sort of situation."  
  
"I'm an ex gundam pilot." At this declaration everyone nodded and gave each other knowing looks.  
  
Next, Heero moved to another hatch began to open the door. Immediately acid began to spray at his face…from the opposite wall. The others watched in horror as he screamed and clawed at his face in agony. Eventually he collapsed to the floor, the only sound a slight hissing coming from his burnt flesh. No one moved.  
  
"Is he dead?" Hotaru whispered. Susuka slowly walked to his body and gingerly checked his pulse. After a moment she nodded. Relena gasped, and looked around frantically. "What just happened?!"  
  
"It looks like the acid we used on the Apsalus," Ginias observed. "I guess we'll have to be more cautious when we open the hatches."  
  
With a communal shudder, the group moved away to try another hatch. They threw a boot in front of one. Nothing happened. Making sure that no one was standing in front of it, they pulled open the hatch. Ginias threw his boot into the new room. Again nothing happened. Everyone climbed through the hatchway. 


	3. Chapter3

Yeah, I know this is exactly like the movie. Originally, I was just gonna tell it to my sister and then she was like "why don't I type it while you tell it to me so we can put it on our web-site." So that's what we did and originally we had alternate endings, some of which may actually be in there, but then my sister went away to college and is to busy to put them in and I'm just too damn lazy. (plus I'm not as talented at writing as her)  
  
  
  
They proceeded in this manner through the square for a few hours without event. As they moved along, they began to hear a wailing. They seemed to be getting closer to the moan, and eventually they could begin to make out syllables and the words.  
  
"Keeerrriillllleeeennnnnn!"  
  
Finally they moved into a new room to the source from which the howling came. A well built, blue-haired woman stood sobbing and banging her head against a nearby wall.  
  
"Hey!" Ginias called to her. "Who are you? Hello? How did you get here? Do you know why we're here?"  
  
She turned her large, watery, blue eyes on him. "Krillen? Do you have a red ribbon? You're pretty." She returned to banging her head against the wall.  
  
"Hey! I asked you numerous questions!" Ginias became annoyed.  
  
Susuka rolled her eyes and sighed. "Can't you see she can't understand you? I'm guessing she has a mild case of retardation." Ginias made a less than attractive face at Susuka, and the rest of the group could feel the tension rising between them.  
  
Susuka ignored him and walked over to the girl. She put her arm kindly around her and asked quietly for her name.  
  
"I'm Marron," said the girl.  
  
"Hi Marron," Susuka answered. "Why don't you sit down right here and I'll come talk to you in just a minute."  
  
Susuka returned to the rest of the group. "We've obviously got to take her with us."  
  
"What?!" Ginias demanded. "She'll only slow us down. I say we take her boots and leave."  
  
"We can't just leave her here," Hotaru reprimanded. "She'll die."  
  
Vegeta broke his several hour long silence. "Then she'll die. The strong survive and the weak perish. She's weak."  
  
"I agree," Ginias nodded. "She'll probably get us all killed."  
  
"No. We're taking her with us." Susuka's tone brooked no argument. Ginias and Vegeta grumbled, but didn't argue further. They group moved on with Marron in tow.  
  
* * *  
  
About half an hour later, they came to a room with only one hatch. In the middle of the floor. They looked at each other expectantly.  
  
"I guess this is the one," Ginias said.  
  
He opened the hatch, and they all peered down into the room beyond. The room was filled with bars jutting out from all angles. On the opposite side they could see a hatch in the wall. Susuka threw a boot into the room. Nothing happened as they watched it drop…Thud…As the boot hit the floor and suddenly long, narrow blades shot out from the walls in all directions. Then, a moment later, the blades were gone again. Everyone looked around at each other.  
  
"I think it's sound activated," Susuka guessed. She yelled into the hole and the blades shot out as they had before.  
  
"Well, it's the only hatch." Relena looked a bit uncomfortable with this fact. "We have to go through it."  
  
"I'll go first," Susuka offered. She took Marron by the arm and brought her too. Suspenseful music played in the background while the others held their breaths in anticipation. But Susuka and Marron made it to the next hatch without incident. They hung from the bars criss-crossing the room and swung themselves onto the ledge in front of the hatch to wait for everyone else. One at a time the others followed silently. Ginias was the last to drop into the hatch and cross the sound triggered room. The soundtrack reached its peak and began to die down to normal chords again as Ginias neared the other side of the room. They were almost through the worst, when suddenly Marron turned back and shouted "Ice cream!" Ginias, eyes wide with terror, threw himself at the ledge and just barely managed to pull himself out of the way as blades thrust through the air behind him. They all quickly scrambled through the hatch into the next room.  
  
Ginias quickly turned on Susuka and Marron. "She could have killed me! I told you we shouldn't have brought her! She's going to get us all killed!" He approached Marron threateningly. Susuka darted between them.  
  
"It's not her fault Ginias! You can't hurt her. She has as much right to live as any of us. And you're not dead, are you? Everyone's OK." Ginias stalked away in disgust when Susuka refused to let him near Marron. She eyed him warily, quite obviously not trusting his complacency.  
  
Ginias meanwhile found the next hatch. He wrenched open the door and walked through after his boot failed to trigger any booby traps. Once he was in the room long thin wires came out from the walls and spiraled toward him winding tightly together into a cord in the center of the room. Without taking time to think, Ginias sprang out of the way and tumbled back into the previous room. Blood oozed from his lower leg as he toppled to the floor. A stream of curses worthy of the lowest ranking member of the Zion military filled the small space as he thrashed about angrily. (In a traditional story, this would be the point where Hotaru rips off most of her clothing and then proceeds to remove most of Marron's clothing as well to stop the bleeding. However, since this isn't traditional, Susuka ripped a large piece of Vegeta's shirt off, and used it to stop the bleeding.)  
  
While Susuka bandaged Ginias, Hotaru studied the hatch. "There are numbers here," she muttered as she noticed a gold plaque on the hatch door. "We've got to figure out a way to figure out which ones have traps without using boots; we've only got one left. There has to be some way to know which one's have traps from these numbers. What do the numbers have in common?"  
  
The others crowded around her. "Well," Relena whined, "maybe we could have figured that out if we had noticed it earlier and paid attention to what all the other numbers were."  
  
Vegeta immediately began to spew out a list of numbers. Relena stared at him. "Wow. Do you have a photographic memory?"  
  
"No. I'm just really, really smart."  
  
"They're all multiples of three," Hotaru exclaimed. "Yeah, they are!" Everyone else agreed. They checked the rest of the hatches in the room for one with a multiple of three in the door. They found only one. When they threw the boot in and nothing happened so they climbed through. In the next room they followed the same method. Susuka found the multiple of three door first and pulled it open. Suddenly the room began to shake. Susuka fell through the open hatch into…nothing. She clung to the edge of the hatchway and stared out at the darkness beyond. There was no room, no ceiling, no floor. Only dark emptiness.  
  
Gineous ran to the hatchway and grabbed her arm. The rest of the group followed to see what was going on. As they reached the hatchway, Susuka fell. They all backed away suddenly. She was dead.  
  
Gineous whirled from the hole to the abyss. "What the hell was that?! Someone here knows what's going on! You!" He pointed to Vegeta. "You know more than you're telling us."  
  
Vegeta smirked. "Yeah. I know something. A couple months ago, my mate was asked to design a giant cube thing. I don't know much about it, it was just supposed to be the outer shell. That's what we just saw. The outer shell." 


	4. Chapter

Gineous got excited. "Yeah, so what is this place?"  
  
Vegeta shrugged. "She didn't know what it was for. It paid well, and she didn't really care. But this is definitely it…Your pitiful human senses probably haven't noticed, but there have been mini earthquakes for a while now. You only noticed this last one because we were so close to it. I think the rooms have been rotating. They'll go through a cycle and if we're in the right room at the end of the cycle we can get out."  
  
"Why'd you wait 'til now to tell us?!" Ginias shouted. Vegeta merely shrugged. (Because I can blast out of here any time I want! And with that, he blasted a hole in the wall and flew away.)  
  
Hotaru looked at Vegeta. "So if we get through this, we can get out, but we have to be there at the right time. So we need to get to the right room."  
  
"We'd better hurry!" Relena began to flutter about the room, ineffectively attempting to find a quick way out of it.  
  
"It'll probably take about 8 hours for the rooms to finish their rotation," Vegeta advised.  
  
"Yes, we should get going," Ginias agreed. With new motivation the group pressed onward.  
  
* * *  
  
The group had about half an hour before the final rotation and they had come to a halt.  
  
"There are no multiples of three."  
  
"What?!" Gineous faced Hotaru as if she were making a very sick joke.  
  
"There are no multiples of three," she repeated.  
  
"What do you mean there are no multiples of three? There must be. Check again."  
  
"Ginias, I already looked. Repeatedly. There aren't any."  
  
"But you said that's what we're looking for!" Hotaru suddenly noticed that Ginias had apparently applied a great deal of eye liner sometime after the last scene. He formerly soft, kind eyes were dark and hard. His voice lowered threateningly. "You'd better find the right door. We're almost out of time." Hotaru backed away from his overwhelming glare and shook her head.  
  
"Just give me a minute to think about it. I'm sure I can figure out something." She sat and mumbled to herself for several minutes, occasionally calling upon Vegeta's memory for the numbers of previous rooms.  
  
"I've got it!" She exclaimed in a moment of enlightenment. "It's the… blah blah blah blah blah," the rest of them heard.  
  
"Right," said Ginias. "So which door is it? What's the number?"  
  
"I don't know that," Hotaru looked at him incredulously. "Didn't you hear what I just said? It would take years to figure it out with a computer."  
  
"I don't care about your excuses! Figure it out!" A wild, uncontrolled look had crept onto Ginias' face.  
  
"You don't get it. It's impossible!" Hotaru backed away from him.  
  
Vegeta stepped in between the two. "Back off Ginias. Beating helpless women is not going to solve the problem."  
  
"You can't figure out the blah blah blah of blah blah blah," Hotaru tried to explain calmly while Ginias loomed menacingly behind Vegeta.  
  
"Two."  
  
"What?" Everyone looked around to see who had spoken. Marron giggled. Hotaru gaped at her. "What did you just say? How can she know that? She must be some kind of genius."  
  
"Outta my way!" Ginias pushed past Hotaru as he searched for the number 2 hatch. Vegeta rolled his eyes. "Killing everyone in your path is only going to slow you down more, you know."  
  
Relena looked up. "Killing everyone in your path…? You killed them! You're the Zion who murdered everyone working on the Apsalus, even your own sister! Susuka knew. So you killed her, too."  
  
"Shut up! I don't need any of you!" Ginias grabbed for Marron. A collective gasp escaped the group. Vegeta punched (flicked) him in the face.  
  
Ginias staggered back and fell to the ground. Vegeta and Hotaru grabbed Marron and ran for the hatch. Relena tried to follow, but before she could reach them Ginias was on his feet again and on top of her. He grasped her hair, pulling her back to grip the rest of her head in his other hand. With a quick twist he snapped her neck. (Everyone silently cheers) He ran for the hatch, but Vegeta managed to pull the other two through and slam it on Ginias' head. Meanwhile, in the next, room Marron and Hotaru scrambled to find the next door. They continued in this fashion, Marron ditzily calling out numbers, Hotaru searching frantically for the right hatch, and Vegeta bringing up the rear fending off Ginias. After about half an hour they could no longer see or hear Ginias behind them. Finally, as they entered a new room, Hotaru stopped.  
  
"This is it," she announced.  
  
"How do you know?" Vegeta queried.  
  
"Um…well, because there was a big sign on that last hatch we came through that said 'this is the room you're looking for.'" Hotaru walked further into the room, "I guess we just wait here." As she walked her foot bumped something small that skittered across the floor. Curious, she bent down to pick it up. "Oh my Kami! It's the shard from my glasses!"  
  
Vegeta looked up at her outcry. He raised one eyebrow. "So?"  
  
"I broke them. When I first woke up here. This is the room we started out in."  
  
A dramatic pause filled the room. And the rooms rotated for the final time.  
  
* * *  
  
A doorway opened on the far side of the room. From a few paces in front of Vegeta, Hotaru spoke, "I guess this is it, Vegeta."  
  
"Vegeta…?"  
  
"Veg–" Hotaru never finished the sentence. Dreamily she looked down at the hatch handle protruding from her stomach. Then she slowly turned her head to the side where she could see Vegeta lying on the floor in a pool of blood. In her final foggy, horror-filled breath she gasped out two words. "Run. Marron."  
  
Marron looked at Hotaru in her own stupidity induced daze. She frowned slightly, then turned towards the bright light of the new doorway. 


	5. Chapter5

A/N: Sorry this has taken so long to update. (Please forgive me, Ed). Anyway, here is the much awaited ending and the even more awaited alternate scenes. Beware: much character bashing ahead. I hope no one has any fondness for Relena?  
  
Marron slowly walks towards the doorway, peering through it curiously. Ginias, apparently still outraged and romping about the room tries to pull her out of the way so that he can get through the door himself. In a last breach of strength, Hotaru grabs his legs just as he is leaning halfway between the two rooms. The building begins to rotate again and Ginias is sliced in half. Marron walks off into the bright light. The End.  
  
Alternate Endings/Scenes:  
  
1. "There are no multiples of three." "What?!" Gineous faced Hotaru as if she were making a very sick joke. "There are no multiples of three," she repeated. "What do you mean there are no multiples of three? There must be. Check again." "Ginias, I already looked. Repeatedly. There aren't any." "But you said that's what we're looking for!" Hotaru suddenly noticed that Ginias had apparently applied a great deal of eye liner sometime after the last scene. His formerly soft, kind eyes were dark and hard. His voice lowered threateningly. "You'd better find the right door. We're almost out of time." Hotaru backed away from his overwhelming glare and shook her head. "Your awful make-up job and bad hair obviously identify you as part of the negaverse! I must destroy you!" She quickly transforms while Marron looks on in glee and claps her hands and Vegita makes a mental note to learn how to power up without looking constipated. Then Sailor Saturn launches her glaive at Ginias and the group quickly moves on before his remains start to smell.  
  
2. In a dark room lit only by a soft eerie glow as if from a red fire escape sign, stands Tenchi, looking dumbfounded. As he is about to move forward, a tightly woven, metal grid the length of the room slowly moves out of the wall in front of him. He watches it glide toward him. Slowly it comes closer. Extricating itself from the wall?Suddenly? Veshoom! Faster than Goku can instant transmission to the fridge, Tenchi is sliced into tiny grid sized pieces. The audience goes wild and the producers decide not to bother with the expense of the rest of the movie. The first five minutes are a box office sensation. or "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!" Ryoko bursts into the room, easily dodging any booby traps, collects the pieces of Tenchi, and attempts to put them back together. The group later finds her covered in super glue next to a mound of squishy pink blocks. Everyone quickly looks for another room, except Marron who sits down to play with the "play-dough."  
  
3. "But how do we know which ones are rigged?" Vegeta turned to look at the whining Relena with a smirk. "We throw you into them first and see if anything happens." "Hey! Good idea!" Susuka picked up Relena, opened a hatch and threw her in. Nothing happened. The group proceeded to use Relena as a test dummy until they found the exit.  
  
4. "Heero Yuy. It's a pleasure," he said and offered his hand to the group. Relena quickly grabbed it. "Relena Peacecraft of the Sanq kingdom." Heero glared at her and stated, "Omae wo korosu." He pulled out a gun and shot Relena in the head. The walls of the building suddenly fell down around them and they all went home.  
  
5. "You can't figure out the blah blah blah of blah blah blah," Hotaru tried to explain calmly while Ginias loomed menacingly behind Vegeta. "Two." "What?" Everyone looked around to see who had spoken. Marron giggled. Hotaru gaped at her. "What? How can she know that? She must be some kind of genius." "Two." Marron said again. "Is that the answer?" Relena asked confused. "No. The answer is 47, but look!" Hotaru pointed to what Marron was calling 'two.' It was a large wooden door with a bright exit sign on the front.  
  
6. In another room, a short, muscular man with pointy hair lay on the floor breathing hard. Without warning large, circular blades sliced at him through the air. He rolled Indiana Jones style out of the way. He landed near a hatch, which he quickly opened and crawled through into the room where the other four stood. "What's going on here?!" he panted. "How did you people get into my new training facility?"  
  
7. Ginias awoke in a large, brightly lit room. Also in the room was a mousy-haired woman with a unibrow. He quickly stood up and surveyed the rest of the room. It was empty. "Hey! What happened to everyone else?" In an observation room carefully concealed within the structure android 17 turned to his partner. "Yeah, what did happen to all the other people who were supposed to be here?" "Well, we had some problems abducting them last night." 18 answered. "Apparently they all eluded 16 by distracting him with a kitten and went out for drinks."  
  
8. Ginias was the last to drop into the hatch and cross the sound triggered room. The soundtrack reached its peak and began to die down to normal chords again as Ginias neared the other side of the room. They were almost through the worst, when suddenly Marron turned back and shouted "Ice cream!" Ginias, eyes wide with terror, threw himself at the ledge and just barely managed to pull himself out of the way as blades thrust through the air behind him. Susuka raised an eyebrow. Perhaps she hadn't given the blue-haired girl enough credit.  
  
They proceeded in this manner through the square for a few hours without event. As they moved along, they began to hear a strange noise. They seemed to be getting closer to the noise, and eventually they could begin to make out syllables and words. Finally, they opened a hatch and came upon a rather disfigured Muppet man who was walking about the room mumbling to himself about girls and babies. Hotaru uncertainly walked up and tapped him on the shoulder, "Hello?" The Muppet man turned to look at her and said excitedly, "Sarah?!" "Um, no, I'm Hotaru." "Oh. Well, I like girls who are lost in mazes. I can show you the way out and you can give me a kiss." "Ew!" Hotaru pulled out her glaive, without bothering to transform, and destroyed him. Suddenly, a large owl flew into the room and turned into a tall blonde man in tight pants who looked a lot like David Bowie. "I've been looking for Hoggle for ages! I'm so glad he's dead. As a reward I will show you out of the 'Labyrinth.'" And everyone lived happily ever after. 


End file.
